Armhianthia by Arbhin Cioc (cat reading book .txt) 📖

The Road is long

Standing at the edge of the platform, he shook the hands of his officer. They won’t see again. His co-workers and the board people ran with him through the schedules of the panels. Parce nodded at each explanation they told him once again. He studied all those lights last night once again. And each button and switch he could tell himself. He even had made some last time check up himself, before it was dark. Had been to the mechanic once again, to make a little change for some things. Small things, so his fingers could run more smoothly over the panels, some combinations of buttons easier visible.
Underneath the platform, the sound of turbines were to be heard. After all the duties, Parce turned on his heels and walked the platform towards the large vessel. He felt the floors under his solid boots tremble, everything inside this vessel was trembling of the large engines. Those engines only were necessary for the big start. But none the less did they need large amounts of energy. And those energies were being bundled as he boarded the rocket. He took a last look outside the door, before it closes. He saw the extra rockets at the sides of the vessel. Four of them were there, filled up with fuel, only for the lift off. The vessel itself would only start after those four rockets would be dropped. If those intelligent people were right, it would be just outside the atmosphere. He went inside and gave his signal to the ground working people. They made his door close. He was cut off the outside now.
He took his cell phone off the insides of his coat. He searched for his wives number and pressed the connection button. Not long after wards came the trembling voice ofhis wife.
Her voice was broken and filled with emotion. “Hello.” They wouldn’t see each other alive again. He was in a way sentenced to death. While on the other hand, he was the first to find live outside earth.

Ten years back, they found a planet long distance away from earth, where it might be possible for humans to live. The first discovery was not even brought out as a big discovery. Only after they ran some tests and they were sure that the atmosphere was perfect for humans to breath, they made the first flight. A test flight, with a very small vessel, to determine how much time it would take for a human to get there.
Of course, the first test flight took but seven years. With nothing more in weight, then its own fuel. For humans it would take much more time, for there would be more weight and supplies and support would be there too. After approximating the real time, they came at fifteen years of travelling. Thirty years, for coming back too.
Parce started as a pilot some ten years back already. After some years of training in the army, he became a real pilot. He had flown some wars, after some five years of flight, he moved bigger and range. He became trainer and trained many a successful pilot.
Now he was in this cockpit and looked at the lights and screens. He interpreted their meanings and with his cell phone on his ears, he spoke to his wife. The last words for at least thirty years. Thought ran through his mind, would she still love him, would he still like her. How much would this travelling change him, change her? She passed the cell phone to his child, his girl. She was but 2 years old. She wouldn’t know him. She would see a strange man appear back home, someone she wouldn’t know. She would at least be 32 years old. Maybe married already.

Some lights flashed on on the screen and a piercing alarm went off with it.
He poked some buttons, his finger flashing over the screen. The alarm silenced. He ended the call for the screens demanded his attentions and as his fingers moved over the screen.

Somewhere in the galaxy

It took him some moments to have his thoughts back on track. Still that alarm sound wouldn’t leave his head. Looking around he found the source of it and walked over to the desk. He had been sleeping, for four hours, he guessed. The lights in his life space dimmed and rose with the schedule of the sun back home. Giving him the idea that there was still night and day. Even though the screen only give darkness. He had no window, to look outside. The differences in pressure, outside and inside would blow the window right out. Still he had a screen on the hull of the vessel, which made an impression of being a window. Little pixels corresponding stars and planets, showing themselves outside shove over the screen. One of those pixels was cornered with a focus. His destiny.
In his records, it was called Gliese. The bottom of the screen was covered with vessel items. Calculated distance, approximated speed, oxygen inside the hull.
He stood up from his bed and stretched. Time to get that annoying alarm sound off and go back to sleep. Most probably the sensors caught another meteor again. They mostly did.
His legs still felt wobbly from sleep. Reaching the screen, he ran with his fingers to turn off the alarm. He ran the tests again, where the alarm was set off, what had caused it. There should be records of it. Grumbling he indeed found the meteor that caused the alarm to howl. It wasn’t even larger than his own hand. The hull outside was toughened with shields, able to withstand twice as big meteors. He closed the windows and turned to go to his bed again. He pulled the cover over his body, took a last glance at the screen. His thoughts turned to the last few years. Captive inside this cage, flying to somewhere. He felt like a prisoner sometimes. Other times he was glad that he got this opportunity.
He looked around him and saw his life space. The screen took up the most of the space. Covering the walls on one side. The floor was a hygienic white, like a hospital floor. The walls were white aswell, covered with some soft tissue, to prevent Parce from getting hurt when he accidently would have weightlessness, or other objects laying around the cockpit. He had one of his paintings from home covering the wall. In front of the large screen a chair, bolted to the floor. The whole room wasn’t larger than an average prison cell, three meters wide, five large. A small portal on the egde of the chamber just large enough for Parce to access gives way to a large stairway from top to bottom. One stage higher is a technical room, where the wires accessing the cameras that are watching out are. Under the cockpit, was a little kitchen room. With the same hygienic white floor, soft tissue walls. It was a small room, as large as his cockpit. There were some rooms like this below even, all with just the main supply for living. Not much room for practice anything, or exercise.
His eyes almost closed when sleep came over him again, when another sound woke him again.
He was out of bed, before he knew what he did. This was a message from earth. The further he was away, the longer it took to reach him. He walked to the screen again and put up his voice set. He saw the icon flash up on the lower right corner of the screen and he opened it.
A voice entered his head. “Goodday to you Parce,” a sweet female voice spoke to him. He didn’t reckognice her, probably a new employer. It has been 2 years back, since he parted earth, many of the people he knew then would have been gone already. “I hope your journey is still in progress. Could you reply to this message to let us know?”
The female voice died out.
Parce threw the voice set on the desk. What a nonsense to wake him up for this. He walked back to her bed again, when his eyes were caught by something on the screen. Most stars were yellow spots on the screen. Some spots appearing weakly from far, some gliding gently off the sides of the screen. But this one should have left some hours back already. Yet it was growing. And not yellow. But some bluish green. Suddenly wide awake now, he walked back to the screen. His fingers ran over some buttons and the screen enlarged with focus of this blue green spot. He send some orders off to scan this object.
It would take some hours before the first results would be back. He set off, down the shaft, to go to this kitchen cabin. The wall just on the otherside of the man hole, which gives space to the kitchen was a screen. His fingers flashed over it, and in front of him a small space opened. Two straws lay in there which he took and closed the space again. It was a large machine, some of which he hoped never would break. For the techniques of this device was far beyond him. Somehow it took the small amounts of dusts which seem to fly loose around in space and turned it into something edible. Of course the small amounts in space were barely enough. So a large compartment behind this machine was filled with basic supplies.
Thankful for this device, he opened the straw. He pushed the subject inside this straw in his mouth, disposed the straws into the machine. It would clean it and refill. Then he left the kitchen again and walked the stairs back up again. He fell back on his bed again and slumbered off, till his dose would start to work.
One hour later he was back up again and cleaning his bed. After doing this he turned to the screen, to investigate if there were any results back yet. Still it took five more minutes before the first result came back. The distance. He looked at the results with a bit of a surprise. The distance was approximated. It always was. But the approximation shouldn’t be as ranged as this one was. Not when this thing was as close as the distance meter told it was. Quickly Parce set out a new course. Of course this was not the goal of his mission. He was supposed to